Age Before Beauty
by poetrygrrl39
Summary: After Buffy's battle with the TurokHan, Willow heals her. But the spell has unexpected side effects. My first attempt at Giles & Buffy, with an age defying twist and it's not Giles' age. Read and Review, please. Now complete!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own BtVS, I don't make any money off these stories, I'm just taking the characters out for a spin.

Spoilers: Begins at the end of Episode 7-10, Bring on the Night, and then goes completely AU from there. Andrew isn't in here, mainly because I find him incredibly annoying. And useless. And…well, you get the point.

Pairing: That would be telling! I'll just say that it's NOT my usual BX.

**Age Before Beauty**

_Chapter 1_

Buffy Summers hurt all over.

She had survived her battle with the Turok-Han, barely, but it had beaten the crap out of her. Even her Slayer healing couldn't control the sharp pain from her broken ribs.

She shifted uncomfortably in bed. At least she still had her room to herself. Many more potentials showed up, she'd be sharing. She'd managed to rally the troops with her little speech about the mouth of Hell opening up and choking on her, but who was going to rally her? she wondered.

Spike was missing, presumably still in the clutches of the First. Willow was too freaked to use magic. Xander was great for boarding up windows and cracking jokes, but not much for the rallying right now. Giles was…what the Hell was up with Giles? she pondered. She'd been so glad to see him, even had that little happy jump in her stomach when she saw him at the door. She'd missed him. That glow lasted for about two minutes, until he went all grumpy and defeated on her. Weird.

She thought for a moment about Giles holding the hand of another Watcher while he died. He had known all of the Watchers who had been killed by Bringers or in the explosion at the Council chambers. Maybe even some of their charges. Young girls murdered for nothing but their potential to become Slayers. No wonder he was acting cranky. And wearing that depressing gray sweater like armor.

Staring at her ceiling, picturing a happier Giles in happier days, she groaned when she tried to roll to her side. Crap. What a mess.

Willow paused in the hallway outside of Buffy's room, hearing the moan. She looked at Buffy's door and bit her lip. Her last attempt to do magic, to try and locate Spike, had resulted in the First climbing into her skin. But Buffy needed her help. She hastened to her room, closing and locking the door before digging under her bed for the box of supplies she kept there.

First came the gold goblet the coven had given her. She crushed into it dried mint, aloe and sage. Creating a magic circle out of purified salt took some time, especially when she decided to add iron shavings to protect herself against magical attack. She positioned candles north, south, east and west around the perimeter of the circle and one in the center. She lit each candle in from north to west, then the center, blessing each one.

She hesitated over her selection of crystals and minerals. Normally, for healing, she would use coral, but she didn't have any. She ran her hands over her choices, finally settling on clear quartz. She carefully nestled the crystal into the herbs in the goblet, then stepped carefully into the circle and sat cross-legged in the center, next to the lit candle.

"Goddess, grant thy boon of healing to thy Slayer,

Step her forward in time to heal her completely.

She has battles to fight, she must be whole,

Blessed Goddess, I ask this for your favored child."

Willow touched the lit candle to the blend of herbs in the goblet, and watched open mouthed as a sparkling cloud of white and green light rose above her circle and whooshed under her door. She heard Buffy cry out, and then silence.

Hands shaking, she extinguished each candle as quickly as she could, brushed aside the salt and iron to create an opening in the circle, and ran to Buffy's room.

Giles was standing outside Buffy's door. "Buffy, are you all right?" he called, knocking. There was no answer.

"Giles?" Willow managed, still shaking.

"Willow," Giles began, turning to her. His eyes narrowed. "You've been using magic?" he asked her.

"Yes. A healing spell, for Buffy. How did you…?"

Gently, he took her shoulders and turned her toward the mirror on the wall. Willow gasped. Two streaks of white ran through her hair, one down each side of her face.

"What happened?" she gasped.

"You obviously took control of some very powerful white magic," Giles said. "Tell me exactly what you did."

"Shouldn't we check on Buffy first?"

Giles blinked at her, took off his glasses and cleaned them absently on the edge of his heavy sweater. "Of course we should, you're right." He reached for the doorknob, then paused. "Perhaps you should go in. I….I….she might not be….dressed."

Willow reached past him and flung open the door. Buffy lay on the bed in her pajamas, the white and green light swirling around her. Willow approached carefully, Giles behind her.

"Her bruises are gone!" Willow hissed to him excitedly, peering through the light. Abruptly, the light disappeared, leaving them almost blind. Giles fumbled behind himself for the light switch, turning on the overhead light and allowing them a good look at the Slayer on the bed.

"Oh, no," Willow whispered.

"Oh dear Lord," said Giles, jamming his glasses back on his face and staring at his Slayer. The Buffy on the bed wasn't the Buffy who had gone into her room less than an hour before.

This Buffy was older. At least 20 years older.

Willow ran from the room sobbing while Giles swore quietly.


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2_

Buffy woke up slowly. She felt so rested, like she had slept for years. And good dreams. No nightmares, no waking up in coffins underground or in bed with Spike. Nice dreams.

Without opening her eyes, she stretched and yawned. No pain, she realized, pausing in mid-stretch. That got her eyes open.

She found herself looking into the very worried green eyes of her Watcher. Startled, she jerked back from him.

"Giles? What are you doing in my room?"

"Buffy, we need to talk."

"Okay, what's with the serious doom and gloom voice? Not more Potentials…hurt?"

Giles snatched off his glasses and began cleaning them, looking anywhere but at his Slayer.

"Willow did a spell last night, to heal your injuries from the fight with the Turok-Han," he began.

"Well, good for Willow. I knew she had it in her to do magic again. I feel fantastic." She scooted backwards on the bed to sit against the headboard. Lying in bed talking to her Watcher felt weird. Not BAD weird. Just weird, weird.

"There was a…. Giles said, still not looking it her.

"Oh-oh. What **kind** of small complication? Is Willow okay?"

"Willow is fine. It's just…" He continued to look somewhere over her head. Buffy grabbed Giles' hand, surprising him into looking at her. "Giles. Spill it."

Silently, he handed her a mirror. Buffy looked into it, confused.

It was her face, but it wasn't. Her skin was rougher. Small wrinkles fanned out from her eyes. Laugh lines, she thought irrelevantly. She released Giles' hand to raise one hand to touch her cheek, then looked at the hand. Her veins and tendons seemed to show more. The skin, like on her face, wasn't smooth and poreless.

"What the Hell did she do to me? I'm my mother!" Buffy shrieked, dropping the mirror and hiding her face in her hands.

"Buffy, it's all right," Giles said, patting her on the knee beneath the covers. He replaced his glasses with the other hand. "I think it's reversible. The coven….."

She yanked her hands down and stared at him open-mouthed. "You **think** it's reversible? You **think**! Oh my God. She made me old."

"Buffy, you're hardly old. I'd say you are still younger than me."

"Gee, that's a relief," she said sarcastically. Giles stiffened and withdrew his hand. She grabbed it before he could turn away. "Giles, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that the way it sounded. You're not old. So, I guess that means I'm not old."

She picked up the mirror and looked into it. "But I'm not 22 anymore, either," she told herself. "And I do look like my mom."

"I have a theory," Giles said, not letting go of her other hand as she stared into the mirror. They so rarely touched anymore. She pulled her hand free, smiling at him absently and alleviating his disappointment, and began poking her nose.

"Is my nose bigger?" she asked, fascinated. She turned her head and stared at the sagging line of her jaw. "That's new."

Giles gave up trying to make any kind of explanation, and watched in fascination as she explored her aged face. He had expected tears and hysteria, not this frank appraisal of her changed appearance. Apparently the shock had helped remove her from her funk.

Buffy's eyes dropped to her top. Ignoring her Watcher's indrawn breath, she pulled it open and looked down the front.

"That's it," she said, torn between giggling and rage, "I'm gonna kill her."

Giles finally got up from the bed and turned away when she reached under her tank top to grab her apparently now-faulty breasts and squeeze, then weigh them in her palms.

"Buffy, I am still here," he said in a strangled tone over his shoulder.

"Oh, sorry," Buffy said. She was surprised both by his reaction and hers. Somehow, she wanted him to be checking out her…She shook her head violently, trying to clear the thought. "It's not like you haven't seen 42-year-old breasts before, Giles."

"Buffy!"

She giggled, and he turned around, catching her gaze with his most severe Watcher glare. She attempted to look suitably chagrined, but giggled again.

"I'm going to leave and let you get dressed. Come down when you're done and we'll discuss my theory. Hopefully we'll have heard from the Devon Coven by then."

"Are they sending an owl?" Buffy asked hopefully.

Giles didn't bother to glare at her, nor did he look confused. Dawn had insisted that he read the Harry Potter books. **And** see the movie. "No, my guess is they'll be making a telephone call."

"Bummer," said Buffy. She leapt out of the bed, flinging the bed clothes aside. She felt great.

"Well, if nothing else, she **did** heal me," Buffy said. She strode over to the full-length mirror and looked at herself, hands on her hips. Grasping the hem of her shirt, she glanced at Giles, biting her lip. "I'm gonna take this off. You gonna stay and watch?"

Snatching off his glasses, Giles backed out of the room, hearing Buffy's quiet "Damn," as he closed the door firmly.

He stared at the wood of the door, briefly raising his hand to touch the wood. He hadn't heard Buffy laugh so much since his dramatic return from England to contain Willow. He had missed it, he realized. He had missed her.

He paused on the staircase, lost in thought and completely unaware that Xander, Willow and Dawn were staring at him while the confused Potentials huddled in a corner.

Someone grabbed his arm. "Giles?" He shook off the hand and looked at Xander. By the pinched look on the young man's face, he was expecting the worst.

"She's well, Xander," Giles said, patting Xander reassuringly on the shoulder and heading down the stairs. "She's….better than I could have guessed. Then any of us could. I need to call the Coven, and Willow, I need you to make sure you write down **exactly** the wording you used, but she's fine."

"She most certainly is not," said a woman's voice. Everyone turned to see a tall, heavyset woman framed in the doorway. She was wearing flowing clothes of crimson and white. Her long white hair pooled on her shoulders.

"Giselda!" Willow and Giles said together. Willow threw herself at the woman and hugged her.

Giselda peeled the younger woman off of her, smiling down fondly. "We will catch up later, Willow-child. Now I must see the Slayer."

"Then look up here," said Buffy. Once again, everyone turned, this time to look up the stairs. The suddenly older Slayer was standing at the top of the stairs, dressed in a black T-shirt and sweatpants. She smiled, one hand on the banister. "I'm guessing there's a problem with my miraculous healing and less than miraculous aging."

Willow flushed.

Giselda nodded slowly.

"There is indeed a problem, Slayer. You are dying."


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3_

Silence. A long-tense silence, broken suddenly when Buffy laughed outright. Giles, the potentials, the strange witch and her friends all stared at her as she indulged in a long, hearty belly laugh.

"Look, lady, I'm guessing you're from Giles' favorite Coven," she finally managed, tears rolling down her cheeks. She wiped them away. The woman nodded, looking a bit perturbed that her dramatic announcement had garnered such a reaction. "Then you don't know the drill. I'm the Slayer. Every day I've lived past 16 is borrowed. I'm **always** dying."

She came all the way down the stairs, reaching out to stroke Xander's arm as she passed, then to take one of Willow's hand in both of hers. Buffy shook her head at the white streaks running through Willow's hair. The witch was distraught, crying silently.

"Will, it's okay. We're gonna fix what needs to be fixed and move on," Buffy told her quietly. "I need you strong. You are a fantastic witch, instant middle-aged Buffy not included. You need to pull it together, for me."

Giles was watching his Slayer talk to Willow with a smile on his face. **This** was Buffy. The Buffy he had known, loved and trained for so many years. Perhaps they could solve the aging problem but keep this Buffy. It almost made everything he had been through in the last few days worth it.

He glanced at Giselda. The hard expression on her face made his smile falter. Slowly, the older witch shook her head, and the smile disappeared completely.

Xander, Willow and Dawn had gathered around Buffy, hugging her and checking out "grown-up Buffy" as Xander insisted on calling her. The potentials were huddled in the corner, watching the scene in confusion. Giles took Giselda's arm and steered her outside. He closed the door softly behind them.

"Tell me," he said, leaning against the post of the porch and looking out at the sunlit street. He crossed his arms across his gray sweater defensively.

"Willow brought Buffy's body forward in time, as we assumed," Giselda began. "We believe she brought her forward to the day of her death."

"How did you determine that?"

"Amber."

Giles drew a breath. Amber was the Coven's seer. She was incredibly powerful.

"She followed the line of Buffy's life. She saw…much. In 20 years, Buffy's line ends."

"And since she appears to have aged 20 years…"

"We believe that this is the end of Buffy's life. If not today, very, very soon."

"What about reversing the spell?" Giles asked without much hope.

As he had expected, Giselda shook her head. "To return her to how she was yesterday might kill her outright, Rupert. As you know, the line assumes that all things continue on the fated path. As she said, she is living on borrowed time, and has been since Willow brought her back from the dead."

"But, if she is fated to live another 20 years, couldn't she live another 20 years in the body she has now? Live into her 60s?"

Giselda looked at him, lips pursed, but made no response. Then she hummed and twirled more hair. Giles was about ready to jump out of his skin. "That is an interesting theory, Rupert," she said. "I must take this thought back to the Coven."

She vanished.

Giles turned around to face Buffy, who was leaning in the doorway watching. She smiled at him.

"How goes it, Watcher-mine?" she asked.

"You haven't called me that in years," Giles said, feeling helpless. He couldn't protect her, he never had been able to.

She came over and wrapped her arms around his waist, surprising him. He hugged her back. She looked up at him, her strangely aged face both achingly familiar and alien at the same time. Her chin rested on his chest and her hair fell back from her face in a golden sheet. One of his hands disengaged from the hug to stroke it. Her hair was so soft, like silk. Giles had the strangest urge to thread his hands through it, to lower his face to hers….

"Giselda be damned," she told him, disrupting his wandering thoughts. "Coven be damned. I'm not planning on dying this time. No offense."

"None taken," Giles said, smiling.

Buffy released him with one last, rib-creaking squeeze.

"I have way too much living left to do," Buffy said fiercely. Her hazel eyes flashed at him. "There are too many things I haven't done. You've never even taken me to England. Willow got to see where you live, all she had to do was try to destroy the world. Why should I miss out?"

Giles grinned at her tone, imagining this new Buffy sitting in front of the fireplace in his family home, hair picking up the color of the flames. He shook his head to clear the image.

His reaction was to be expected, he mused. The Council had drummed into his head for years that Buffy was a child, a child to be protected and overseen, but certainly not a woman. Not that years of training had stopped some of the previous Watchers from forming relationships with their young, attractive female charges, both potential and active.

Giles admitted to himself that he would have had to be blind not to notice Buffy was very attractive, especially in the mini-outfits she insisted on wearing, but she was still a child.

Except now she wasn't.

"Did you hear what Giselda said, about the seer?" he asked her, trying to both change the subject and marshal his roaming thoughts.

"Nope."

He told her what Amber had seen, that she should live at least another 20 years.

"I'm guessing there's a catch," Buffy said.

"That's if nothing throws the line off kilter," Giles admitted.

"Like overzealous red-headed witches with mega-sized guilt?" asked Willow from behind her friend. Xander wrapped his arms around both girls from behind, resting his chin on Willow's shoulder, his work-tanned face a strange contrast to the white in her vividly red hair.

"Hey, if you can't supersize the guilt, what's the point?" he asked. The two women and Giles looked at each other. "It sounded funny in my head," Xander whined.

"Sure it did," Willow said. Dawn appeared from behind Xander and pushed her way into the embrace. She and Buffy smiled at Giles and opened their arms. The Watcher sighed and stepped into the group hug.

"Uh, you do know you guys are blocking the doorway, right?" one of the Potentials said.

"There's another one in the kitchen," Buffy said in a muffled voice.

"Geez," the Potential huffed, thumping away.

"Hey, come back here," Willow demanded. "You guys need hugs too!"

Giles watched bewildered as the Scoobies untangled themselves and set about hugging the Potentials, who squealed and giggled and tried to escape. Finally, each and every one of the newbies had been hugged, except Eve, who was backed against a wall. Shrugging, Giles himself reached out to her. And his hand passed through her.


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4_

Surprised, Giles yelped, his hand still centered in Eve's body.

The giggling and shrieking died slowly as everyone in the room realized that the First had been living among them, that Eve must be dead.

"Stupid Watcher," drawled the First in Eve's Southern accent. "You couldn't just leave well enough alone, now could you?"

Buffy came up from behind Giles, pulling his arm back and gently patting his hand. Arms crossed, she looked the First up and down. Dawn moved up next to Giles, leaning against him.

"Ooh, scary, a teenage girl," Buffy said sarcastically.

"Scarier than a middle-aged woman with the giggles," the First retorted.

Xander snorted. All eyes turned to him.

"Sorry, that comment just ranked high on the lameness scale," he said.

"And Xander would know," Buffy said, turning back to the First.

"That's right, I would….Hey!"

Willow giggled softly. The First Evil was looking more and more annoyed with every passing second. Suddenly, it transformed into Buffy herself. The Buffy who had jumped off the tower a year before.

There was a collective intake of breath. Buffy looked at the First, lips pursed and eyes narrowed. She spun quickly to face Dawn and Giles.

"All right, no one could have mentioned I was getting a **zit** when I died? I mean, look at that thing!" She pointed sharply at the fake Buffy's nose. "Tell me they put plenty of make-up on that thing when they laid me out in the coffin."

Giles and Dawn looked at each other and shrugged.

She moved close to the image of herself and leaned forward, peering at the apparently offensive facial feature. The First backed up, looking furious.

"Oh well. Who's up for breakfast?" Buffy asked, waving the Potentials toward the kitchen. They went, chattering quietly, followed by the Scoobies and Dawn.

"Um, Buffy?" Giles asked. She looked at him, feigning unconcern. "What about…?" he tipped his head toward the fuming "source of all evil" in the corner.

Giles wished striking it would have some kind of effect. It had killed Robson, along with dozens of other Watchers and potential Slayers. So Quentin was no loss. So many others had been his friends, his comrades. Had gone through training with him, only to be hacked to pieces by Bringers or blown to bits in the Council building. He clenched his fists. Buffy noticed, eyebrows raised. She deliberately turned her back on the First.

"Who? Her? It? Whatever? It's not invited for breakfast. In fact, I suggest it leave."

"You haven't seen the last of me, Slayer!" the First shrieked. Buffy's image expanded and grew into a dark, shadowy devilish form, then vanished.

Buffy took a deep breath of relief. She settled on the stairs, shaking. Putting his own anger and upset aside, as he always did when she need him, Giles hurried over to put a hand on her shoulder.

"So now we know the answer to dealing with the First. Treat it like you don't really care what it does." She shook her head. "Too bad that doesn't work with a Turok-Han."

She put her hand on top of her Watcher's, looking up at him and smiling. "Always there when I need you, aren't you, Giles?" she asked him.

Giles cleared his throat. "That's my job," he said stiffly. "I…I mean…"

"That's not all I am any more, though, am I, Giles?" she asked. She stood up on the second step, eye-to-eye with her much-taller Watcher, still holding his hand.

Impulsively, Giles leaned forward and kissed her. The moment their lips touched, he regretted his decision. Until Buffy leaned into him and kissed him back, throwing both arms around his neck. He pulled her closer, hands running up and down her back.

"Holy crap!"

At the sound of Xander's astonished voice, Buffy and Giles broke apart. They stared at each other, flush faced.

"I, I…um…"Giles stuttered his way back from Buffy and vanished out the front door. Her face unreadable, Buffy turned and stomped up the stairs to her room.

Which left a very confused Xander standing in the hallway. "About time?" he whispered to himself.


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter 5_

After a huddled conference in the downstairs hallway, the Scoobies decided to send Xander after Giles while Dawn and Willow went to talk to Buffy.

Xander was not relishing the conversation as he headed out the door, wondering where Giles would have gone. It took him only seconds to make a decision.

Sure enough, he found the former librarian standing in front of the new high school, hands shoved deep into his pockets, chin tucked into his chest.

"Geez, Giles, that is the ugliest damn sweater ever," Xander blurted. "Makes me want to gouge my eyes out."

Giles ignored him.

"Come on, G-man, gray? I mean, seriously."

"I'm surprised my display earlier didn't effect your eyes more than my maligned sweater," Giles muttered back.

Xander breathed a sigh of relief. At least the G-man was talking.

"What, with the kissage? I'll let you in on a secret. We've been expecting Giles and Buffy lip-locking since Buffy…came back."

Giles looked at him startled. "But, I never…I mean, Buffy is beautiful And powerful. And…but she's so much younger than me! She's a child."

"Ah, now I get it."

The older man glared at him. "What, exactly, do you 'get'?" he snapped.

"She's not that much younger, anymore, is she? Maybe a couple of years. And she's still beautiful and powerful and whatever the other 'and' was going to be, which if it was me, would have had something to do with the length of her skirts, and shall therefore remain unspoken.

"Add in the elimination of the Watchers' Council and thereby the rules, and she's not forbidden fruit any more. And let's not forget the longing Buffy looks. So you can finally admit how much you want her."

Giles expression went from a full-out glare to astonishment.

"Xander, your insight often surprises me."

Xander shrugged. "I keep my eyes open, that's all."

Giles smiled, an expression that quickly faded. "Oh dear Lord. Buffy must hate me. I've been a complete prat."

"Running off in the middle of your first kiss, probably not the best move, no. But, hey, it's not like you left her at the altar!" Xander said. Giles looked at him sourly. The younger man patted Giles on the shoulder. "Let's get you back to her."

Back on Revello Drive, Buffy was sitting on her bed holding Mr. Gordo and staring out her window. Willow and Dawn didn't bother to knock, instead barging right in. They had had a long conference in the hallway before entering, and thought they had their lines down. The fact that Buffy had no response to their rude entry made the two girls exchange worried looks.

"What's up, Buffy?" Willow asked tentatively.

"I'm sure Xander filled you in. I chased Giles away."

"That's not what Xander said," Dawn said. She sat down next to her sister, ignoring the fact that Buffy refused to meet her eye. "Xander said there was major lip wrestling going on, he startled you two, and Giles bolted."

"Like I said, I chased Giles away."

Dawn looked at her sister, who now looked more like her mother, and sighed. A deep, heartfelt sigh that only an exasperated teenager could produce.

"Xander interrupting my first kiss would probably make me all dashy too," Dawn said. "It **was** your first kiss with Giles, right? How was it?"

"Yeah, Buffy, dish," Willow said.

"Dish? Dish?" Buffy exploded, leaping off the bed and flinging the stuffed pig across the room. "I just scared off my Watcher, my Giles, the only man who has ever stood by me, well, other than Xander, and most of the time, and you want me to **dish** on our first kiss?"

"Somewhere in all that, there was a statement that made sense," Willow said. She paused. "I think."

"Oh, Will, I don't know what to do! I've wanted him for so long, and I kept it so buried since he went back to England and now….now, I've ruined everything!" she burst into tears on her friend's shoulder while Dawn rubbed her back, shushing her. She and Willow exchanged wry looks. So much for the script.

"For pity's sake, what is **wrong** with you people?" demanded a woman's voice from the doorway. The three girls swung to see Gizelda standing in the doorway, arms crossed, foot tapping and a very annoyed expression on her face. "I tell you the Slayer's dying, I get giggles. She gets kissed, and **now** there's tears. I swear, what is your problem?"

Buffy dashed tears from her face and crossed her own arms. Looking past the witch, she could see Potentials huddled behind her in the hallway, whispering to each other.

"Let me through, please, girls." Her stomach leapt, then dropped. Giles! Giles' voice. He came back. Oh, God, what should she do? "Girls, let me through!"

The group of "mini-slayers," as Xander had begun calling them, reshuffled to allow Giles access to Buffy's bedroom. He pushed past Gizelda without an apology, eyes on his Slayer, who seemed to be frozen as she stared at him.

Crossing the room, he took her in his arms, whispered something in her ear, and, in front of everyone, kissed her.

"Aww…." Willow and Dawn said together, smiling at Xander, who was hovering in the doorway behind the witch. She was looking, if anything, more annoyed.

"Ahem!" she said, clearing her throat. "AHEM!"

Buffy and Giles broke apart, flushed and slightly disheveled. His arm around Buffy's shoulder, Giles turned them to face Gizelda.

"You have news?" he asked her.

She sighed. "Yes, I do. We can…adjust the original spell, returning Buffy to her proper age, but it will probably interfere with the long-term timeline. We have no way of knowing if Buffy would have the remaining 20 years she is destined to have.

"If we leave Buffy as she is, we believe she will, as Rupert proposed, continue to age at a normal rate for another 20 years. Assuming, of course, no other magic or Apocalypse throws the timeline out of kilter."

"Big assumption," Xander muttered. The woman glared over her shoulder at him and he shrugged.

"Giles?" Buffy asked softly. He looked down at her, marveling again at the differences in her so-familiar face.

"Yes love?" He smiled.

"I think we need to talk." Buffy felt Giles stiffen, and his arm slowly dropped away from her shoulders.

"If we could have some privacy, please?" Giles asked the rest, and they shuffled quietly out of the room, casting worried glances over their shoulders at Watcher and Slayer.


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter 6_

The room was empty. Buffy and Giles looked in opposite directions. Giles was cleaning his glasses slowly while Buffy fiddled with her hair.

"God, this seems familiar," Buffy burst out, flopping down on her bed. Startled, Giles dropped his handkerchief.

"Familiar, how?" He left the piece of cloth where it had fallen and slipped his glasses on.

"When I first found out about Riley and the Initiative, and he found out about the slaying, we said we had to talk, then we just couldn't."

"What happened?"

"Eventually, we talked, which led to…other things." She ducked her head and blushed. Giles ignored the blush and sat down next to her on the bed.

"Buffy, tell me. What's wrong?"

"WillyoustillwantmeifI'myoungagain?" Buffy burst out.

"Um, sorry? I didn't get that."

"I'm so nervous, Giles. Will you still want me if I'm young again?"

"Oh, Buffy," he said, pulling her into his chest.

"This feels good, Giles, but it's not an answer. Will you still want me if I'm not old Buffy anymore?"

Giles' mind was racing. What could he say? The truth? That he was more comfortable loving a woman closer to his age? The semi-truth? That he would always love her no matter what?

Buffy pulled back from him, looking into his eyes.

"You said you loved me, when you got back just now, before you kissed me in front of God and witches and Scoobies and potentials and who knows who else. How do you love me, Giles?"

Buffy felt like she was holding her breath, waiting for his answer.

"Buffy, for years, you have been the center of my life. The sun around which I turn," Giles said. "I think, all that time, while I was pretending that my feelings were parental, they were always something more. God knows your teeny little skirts provoked decidedly non-paternal feelings in me."

Buffy giggled, as he had intended.

"But you are…were….so much younger than me. More than 20 years. And I was taught to treat you as a child, not as a potential lover. Honestly, Buffy, I don't know what to say. I love you no matter what your age. I love you no matter how you look.

"I want you to think about something else, Buffy. Sending you back to your normal age could have a terrible affect on your personal timeline. This way, you have 20 years, assuming…well, assuming that fate is kind. Going back could strip that time away from you."

"Away from **us**," Buffy corrected firmly. His eyes widened and she smiled. "Giles, when I came back from…from heaven, you were my touchstone. You kept me sane, or as sane as I could be. Before you left, I started to feel…I started to feel **more** for you. More than Watcher, more than friend. Way more than fill-in daddy.

"You left me." The stark words made him wince and he tried to look away. She captured his chin, shaking her head. "I turned to Spike, both to try to feel something and to try not to feel what I felt for you. It was wrong. You're my Watcher."

"And I'm old and gross," Giles added, smiling.

"That too. But oldness and grossness aside, you know me, better than any man ever has. You have seen me through the bad and through the badder," she took a deep breath. "I want those 20 years with you, Giles. I want as much time with you as this Hellmouthy world will allow. You tell me, Giles. Is that what you want too?"

Giles stared into the hazel eyes looking into his, then leaned forward and captured Buffy's mouth. Minutes later, when they pulled breathlessly apart, Giles smiled.

"Buffy, an eternity with you wouldn't be enough. Please, give me those 20 years to show me how much I love you."

Buffy smiled warmly, throwing her arms around him. "They're yours, Watcher-mine!" she shouted.

They kissed again to the sound of cheers and whistles from the hallway, where their friends had been glued to the door. Smiling as they fell backward onto the bed, they heard Dawn herding people in a strident voice. The First, the end of the world, and the Bringers would wait.

After all, they only had 20 years.

-FIN-


End file.
